Tags

Mike Brown confirmed Sunday he plans to exercise the club option as part of A.J. Green's contract this year.

It serves in the same way as a transition tag.

Many times when we hear the word transition tag the instant thought goes to the contentious nature of it with Cleveland's Alex Mack. It hasn't really been used much.

Truth be told, though, this has nothing to do with that. This marks the first year the new CBA effects rookie contracts set to be up. In regards to top 10 picks in 2011, every team has an option to place a transition tag paying him an average of the top 10 at their position in order to lock them in for a fifth year.

They must make this decision by the first week in May this year. It will be about $11 million for the one year in Green's case.

Most every team who had a top 10 pick that year is expected to do the same thing the Bengals are with Green.

This is not some sort of power play made by the Bengals, rather part of the rookie contract negotiated with the CBA. The team can, obviously, still negotiate a long-term contract with Green instead of pay the lusty $11 million. Both sides will talk.

The Bengals also have the right after the 2015 season to franchise Green if they would like, but Brown didn't delve further into that issue.

Moral of the story: Brown only confirmed the team would exercise the club option under the transition tag money, which is an assumption most all teams will do as well with their top 10 picks. It assures he stays in Cincinnati for the next two years. They have that much time to figure out his long-term contract situation.

On the other hand, involving Andy Dalton whose contract is up after 2014, the team must figure out if they want to extend him now or allow him to hit the open market. That makes him more pressing a situation than Green.